This. Everything was rosey on Thursday night so I wonder if this is just a case of Alex Neil getting his side of the story out their first (via the players etc) and before the club have a chance to defend themselves so as to deflect/detract from him pulling a fast one and acting pretty poorly.
It’s all on this next appointment for me. There’s two scenarios I reckon, the first is that the club is still a complete **** show, we completely lucked out in appointing AN by chance and he’s been the reason behind all subsequent success despite everything/everyone else at the club. He’s the sticking plaster that’s been holding it all together and now everything is about to unravel with his departure.
The second scenario is that a club process identified AN’s strengths, that was aligned with a recruitment strategy that has seen the squad and its worth completely transformed in just three windows, he was appointed and we’ve evolved and succeeded as a collective. The same process can be repeated or even improved upon in light of our better league position and we can continue the evolution.
For what it’s worth I think AN is the bees knees and a great fit for us as a club. I do think though that he’s quite the self promoter and self preservationist. He’s very good at getting his excuses in early to amplify his achievements and/or mitigate against any potential shortcomings or failures reflecting badly on him. I’ve gleaned that from reading absolutely loads on his time at Preston and Norwich as well as what we’ve seen here. He’s good at controlling the narrative.
My concern now is that even if the reality is closer to scenario 2 then AN may have jeopardised that with the nature of his departure and his communications with the players, throwing the club under the bus in a last act of self preservation. It may mean the new man is onto a hiding to nothing with the squad regardless of their pedigree.
****ing AN, I should be sound asleep and instead I’m up writing all that bollocks.
